I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
by Sora Ketsueki
Summary: Last chapter! A little bit of the twisted Malfoy history comes out, and Ginny has finally reached her last night. But a strange and unheard of situation occurs, and there's soon an interruption. Which of the two will make it out alive?
1. Chapter 1

Hey there, I know, it has been a long while. Well I've been writing this, and while it may suck, please lie and say it's good! See, I'm supposed to be having it beta-d, but my beta is not doing her job...VenusAeternuscoughcoughcough...and I'm really impatient. So if you catch any mistakes, please tell me! Then I'll fix them and make it better. The spacing is a little off, I hope you don't mind.

Oh, and "DISCLAIMER": I don't own anything in this story or the book that I used for the title, except where it takes place, because I made it up. :) But I wish I did, so that makes me feel like I own them...

)(

At the end of the day, Ginny Weasley was always too tired to do much else than eat, bathe, and sleep. It was a rare occurrence for her to be able to sit down and listen to music, or to even catch a...a...ci-me-na with her friends.

Auror work was extremely trying, even for those in top condition. It had been worse, so much worse during the War, and everyone had given it their all in those days.  
  
When Voldemort had attacked the Ministry in her fourth year, Ginny Weasley remembered following her brother and his friends and Harry Potter, and all she could think was that it would never get much worse.  
  
Indeed, it did.  
  
She had lost too many friends and just as many acquaintances in battle, people she had woken up next to and sat next to, and fought next to. Those who died were considered the luckiest because those who they left behind suffered even more.  
  
Harry Potter, no doubt about it, suffered further than anyone else. When she had left the field that day, she went to visit Harry in St. Mungo's, which was in extremely high security.

Ginny would never forget the way he looked just before the Ministry collapsed. She heard his voice over and over again, with Neville, screaming at them to run. Run, run, before he comes after you.  
  
She ran with Ron and Hermione, just as the ceiling began to collapse. Remus Lupin had met them at the entrance and the air around them smelled of dust and filled with shards of flying granite and metal.  
  
Harry dragged himself through the boulders, the debris, and finally reached Neville. They heard faint moans just before he emerged, moving himself heavily.  
  
He had made it through with a broken leg and a nearly severed arm, hardly able to move, momentarily blinded by the intense pain in his head and the dust in the air. In his bleeding fingers he held a shred of Neville's robes.  
  
Ginny had never forgotten any details of that day. Voldemort had escaped but was now a small remnant of what he once was.  
  
Ginny Weasley hated decrepit buildings now and so she had not enjoyed today's venture.  
  
They had received word from a scout that Lucius Malfoy and his son Draco had been sighted in a warehouse somewhere in Manchester.  
  
The warehouse was run down, leaking, and roiling with rats.  
  
Ginny hated it now more than ever.  
  
She had been the one forced into going down into the basement structure, Level A, complaining about the lack of decent wizards who believed in chivalry these days. The whole endeavor had resulted in a near death experience because the basement's main column was in the process of collapsing just as Ginny got under the building.  
  
She left work today with more than one type of scar.  
  
In the hospital, as soon as Harry had fallen asleep squeezing her hand, she had left. He had been doing so much better and was nearly ready to leave. By Monday, the nurse said. Ginny's heart leaped with a suspiciously good feeling.  
  
Too tired to apparate, she caught the Knight Bus home, ate some cold lasagna straight from the refridgerator, and just as the sun went down she stepped into the bath.  
  
Ginny sighed and squeezed a generous amount of shampoo onto her head and started to rub it in. She massaged her scalp, trying to deter the headache that she could feel coming on.  
  
"Ah, bugger!" She hissed, as a small rivulet of soap ran into her eyes. She squeezed them shut.  
All the while she remained blissfully unaware that, at that very moment, someone was tiptoeing into her bathroom.  
  
In fact, had Ginny opened her eyes to look for her conditioner, she would have seen a very angry, very frightful looking Draco Malfoy step up to the shower.  
  
If Ginny had any inkling, she would have been able to tell that someone with nothing to lose was easing open her shower curtain.  
  
And though she would never realize it, she had been so close to catching him and his father today that she was just a few minutes late. Ginny would have beaten herself silly had she known.  
  
The government would never let some old rundown building stand in the middle of a town if it was in danger of collapsing.  
  
Ginny hummed out a few notes just to make a little noise, and she was very lucky that the sudden sound startled Malfoy. He knocked down her bottle of conditioner, which was perched precariously on a small shelf.  
  
Whirling, she opened her eyes and everything flashed around her.  
  
Ginny cursed quickly and immediately shoved her hand in front of her. She screamed as loud as she could when she connected with someone's face and shoved it back into the tile.  
  
Hearing the sickening crack, she leaped from the shower and grabbed a towel to wipe her eyes clean and she opened them as she scrambled madly for the door to her bedroom where, laying on her bed in her clothes, was her wand.  
  
She turned quickly and saw Draco Malfoy lunging after her, his clothes damp and his hair wet.  
  
Ginny didn't stop screaming even as she ran down the hall and into her bedroom, stopping only to lock the door behind her and barely managing to throw her desk down in front of it to deter any entrance.  
  
Ginny looked for her wand. She screamed loudly as Draco Malfoy began to kick the door. He was screaming at her, most likely yelling obscenities, and she shrieked.  
  
She had lost her wand, that was for sure. It wasn't in her clothes. It was too late when she realized that Draco Malfoy must have come into here looking for her wand and he had found it and she would have been much better off jumping out the window.  
  
Slipping as quickly as she could into a large coat, she held it tightly about her. A two-story jump into some bushes could nearly be considered routine. Actually she was kidding herself, but there was no time to dwell on that fact now because she was about to see Draco Malfoy coming through the door, which was splintered just enough to allow his wiry body through. Ginny clambered onto the windowsill, clutching her coat shut, just as Malfoy scrambled madly over her desk.  
  
Ginny jumped without a second glance.  
  
Draco Malfoy, however, had other plans. He pointed his wand at her and said, "Levioso!" and she came floating up to him, kicking and screaming, madly wondering where all the neighbors where.  
  
He grabbed her by the neck as soon as she came to the window.  
  
Ginny fought briefly before he slammed her head into the wall.

Ginny woke hours later and her head pounded. She reached up and felt dried soap in her hair and clumps that she recognized as clotted blood.  
  
Draco Malfoy, who must have been sitting in the shadows tending to his own wounds, emerged from the corner farthest from her with a piece of cloth tied around his arm, and several scratches and tears in his shirt. Ginny tried not to flinch as he bent over in front of and instead looked back into his angry eyes with pure defiance. He grasped her hair and yanked her head up in a fury. She hissed at the pain and shut her eyes in a wince.  
  
"Long time," Malfoy wrenched at her hair, "No see...kid." He spoke in a condescending tone.  
  
"Where is my wand?" She cried out as he let go of her hair and pressed her face into the stone lined floor.  
  
Ginny was barely able to make out the evil snicker over the vicious pounding in her head. He leaned back and released her. Pulling something out of his pocket, he smiled at her like a cat to a mouse. She sat up and backed into the corner while holding her coat shut and trying to button it up.  
  
He balanced himself on his feet, kneeling in front of her. Ginny looked at him angrily as he twirled her wand between two fingers. "Give it back right now."  
  
He grabbed her neck and pushed her back into the rock wall. "You're in no place to demand things of me!" Draco hissed, and he felt her gulp against the palm of his hand.  
  
She heard him snap it into two.  
  
Ginny managed a breath but felt a pain like never before at the loss of her wand. "I can, and I will!" She struggled against him, trying to hit his face and blind him momentarily. "I demand food, I demand water, I demand clothing, a bath, and I want to get my freedom back! But most of all Malfoy I want to see you hanged!" As emphasis on the last word, she kicked him as hard as she could in the shins. She seized the opportunity as his grip loosened for a moment.  
  
Draco toppled over and Ginny scrambled past him as fast as she could to the other side of the room, coming across a locked door in the shadows. She went quickly for the handle but Malfoy collided into her and knocked the wind out of her.  
  
Ginny fell to the ground and Malfoy lunged, hitting her hard in the stomach. Next, he went for her neck. He crushed her neck into the stone and Ginny started to gurgle, closing her eyes as she clawed at his face.  
  
Ginny was nearly ready to die when his left hand came up to strangle her also. Seizing another very lucky opportunity, she tried to cry out to distract him. Ginny got her hands up to his and tried to pry his fingers off of her.  
  
She got hold of his pinkies and she bent them back towards his wrists. She kept it up until finally he let out a roar of pain and let go.  
  
Ginny pushed him off and made another mad dash to find something, anything to get him away.  
  
She had to struggle to see through the red stars that invaded her line of site. There was a chair and a small table that had bloody splinters of wood on it and a bowl of water, which she hadn't noticed in the far corner of the room. She ran to it while gasping madly and trying to breathe.  
  
Grabbing the water, she threw it in his face. Ginny also grabbed several of the splinters that Malfoy had just earlier pulled from his arm. He came at her again, the water running out of his eyes. She panted madly, stumbling over a small bucket, but righted herself and remembered the splinters.  
  
Ginny fit them quickly in the cracks between her fingers and she punched him, trying for his neck and eyes. They got stuck in her hand and soon she was bleeding, the pain so harsh that it was numbing her whole body; yet Ginny pounded mercilessly on his face and chest, succeeding in scratching him and making him bleed more than hurt.  
Malfoy managed to get away from her. He blocked her blows and backhanded her on the cheek.  
  
Ginny fell to the ground, dizzy and half unconscious.  
  
She moaned throatily as she felt blood in her mouth.  
  
Malfoy picked her up and carried her to the other end of the room and he dropped her onto the hard floor. She blinked as blood rushed to her head and poured from the cuts on her face.  
  
"Fucking hell. Pretty damn good." Malfoy turned his head and spat some blood onto the ground. He bent over her and she looked groggily up at him, still blinking, trying to clear the blood from her eyes. He smirked. "It won't last for long."  
  
Some blood trickled from the corner of her eye but she didn't cry. Draco wanted her to sob and beg and plead for mercy; all the things she would never do. He put his hand up and brought it down swiftly and she closed her eyes quickly so as not to see him hit her.  
  
But he didn't. And instead Ginny felt a strange, alien caress on her cheek, sliding, sliding, going down her neck and resting on her breast.  
  
Ginny stiffened and tried to sink into the ground, squeezing her eyes shut. She tried to yell and curse him, but she couldn't. Her vocal chords were crushed.  
  
Draco leaned forward and licked the trail of blood that fell down her cheek.  
  
Then he stood and kicked her in the side and Ginny elicited a wet, choked moan. "Tomorrow, you'll be dead."  
  
Ginny dimly heard his footsteps leading away and the slam of the door rocked her senses. The heady scent of spilled blood was in the room along with the musty smell of mold, moss, and hatred.  
  
Ginny couldn't scream, she couldn't cough, she couldn't speak. She felt like she was dying and she lay there not moving.  
  
Somewhere she felt a slight breath of air, cool and soothing. It ran past her cheek, and she could feel the icy trail of Malfoy's saliva.  
  
The mere thought brought back the already fading memories of his hand on her and suddenly she rolled over, her stomach heaving.  
  
The acid burned her already rupturing throat, but there was no stopping the vomit from escaping the confines of her gut.  
  
She heaved over and over again. But finally nothing would come up so she crawled weakly to the cleaner corner where she collapsed.  
  
She had so many questions. But she brought the most important query to the front of her mind.  
  
When...when would they come for her?  
  
Surely...surely someone would notice her disappearance. She had put up a fight,and her flat was now in shambles.  
  
She was bound to be discovered missing. Wasn't she?  
  
She briefly closed her eyes. 

Ginny awoke with a horrible taste in her mouth and she felt like retching again. Her mind was in shambles and she felt weak, realizing she had fallen asleep in a place as horrid as this, and thinking of all the things that asshole could have done to her while she had been down. She tried to stand and suddenly an immense pain rushed through her hand. Ginny was forced to collapse and she felt a thick liquid swirl around her fingers.  
  
Looking down, Ginny gagged. Sticking in her hand, deep under the skin, were three splinters, sharp, and nearly the size of small toothpicks. They were embedded in a torn mass of skin and flesh, and blood was pooling on the floor.  
  
Ginny winced and did a half-hearted grimace.  
  
However, her face was so bruised she could barely manage it. She stood by balancing her weight on her other hand and Ginny managed to limp carefully around.  
  
It was roughly twenty steps wide and maybe thirty steps to the door. There used to be a table and chair, but they were gone now, and so were the items that were on them.  
  
A small bucket, the one she had knocked over, was resting in the corner of the room. She guessed that it would be her new toilet.  
  
Ginny had felt a breeze earlier, and she looked for the source. It hadn't come from the door, certainly, it was the wrong direction. Looking at the walls, which were high and clothed in moss, she saw a small light and realized it was the glow of a star, shining upon the wall.  
  
She looked up, and through a small hole in the ceiling, she could make out the celestial creature.  
  
Suddenly Ginny began to cry. Hot tears poured mercilessly down her cheeks and she lost sight of the star at the onslaught. She rubbed her eyes madly so as not to lose it again.  
  
Ginny gave a ragged sigh and she wailed hoarsely. She realized, of course, it was her only connection to the outside.  
  
But she knew that it would be the last star she would ever see.  
  
It was glowing, shining down upon her, and Ginny felt another wave of tears. She looked up once more and thanked it.  
  
For what, exactly, she had no idea.  
  
She backed into a corner then and composed herself. She slid down the wall and wiped away her tears, just in time to hear Malfoy come banging down the hall outside. She sat on her haunches.  
  
Ginny heard him open the door and he came in balancing two trays. She watched him slam the door shut. He strode over to her and sat down, his face lit by the star. Ginny leaned her head back into the shadows, but Malfoy could see her eyes glinting dangerously.  
  
She stared at him. Finally he said, "Well, eat. I know you're hungry." His eyes flickered to where she had emptied her stomach earlier.  
  
She lifted her chin defiantly. Ginny lifted her hand to his face, as though she were about to push him backwards.  
  
Looking straight at him, she reached for the forceps. Then she focused down at her hand, she braced herself.  
  
Finding a splinter's end, she grasped it with the forceps and pulled gently. She hissed. She looked at Malfoy, who was snickering. "Would you please leave?" Ginny managed, her throat rasping horribly and her voice husky and deep.  
  
He smiled at her, showing only the tips of his canines, as though he were a ravenous wolf that thrived on blood and probably ate small children and old people. It was all true, of course.  
  
Ginny scowled and went back to her hand, leaning further into the darkness.  
  
Grasping the wood with the tweezers again, she pulled more forcefully. The splinter slid out, and came with some of her flesh.  
  
Throwing it onto the tray, she went for the second one. That one slipped out of her hand the easiest and she was eager for the whole business to be finished. The third wouldn't come out.  
Ginny finally wrenched it free and there was a large string of meat attached to it. Ginny opened the bottle of antiseptic and poured it on her hand.  
  
She hissed again as it burned, stinging and stinging.  
  
She really felt like screaming and crying and ripping at her hair but that couldn't be done in front of her captor.  
  
Malfoy was now looking at her.  
  
She was looking at her reflection in the tray and it was dim and blurry but she could make out the other areas that needed her care and attention. Pouring some more liquid onto her hand, she pressed it to her eyebrow and around the bruises and scrapes on her neck, then she gently cleaned the bump on her head.  
  
Burning in a thousand places now, she set upon the food.  
  
"It's poisoned, you know." Malfoy said as he watched her slurp at the soup and water.  
  
His jest didn't faze Ginny and in fact, she ate more ravenously, staring at him while she downed the meal.  
  
Malfoy laughed throatily. She would rather die with her gut wrenching then let herself be willingly taken.  
  
"Ah ha ha." She laughed mockingly, pushing the two trays at him. But she paused. "I'm keeping one."  
  
He contemplated the idea for a long while, and Ginny thought he was going to refuse and then bash her head in for suggesting such a stupid thing. He sighed. "Fine. You may. You're not going to be here long at any rate." He spoke a binding spell, something Latin that she had never heard. Now he would know what she was doing with it, whether she was trying to dig her way out, which was very unlikely, or if she would use it to club him the next time he came in, which was most likely.  
  
Malfoy raked his eyes up and down her form, looking at the shell of a woman who had been powerful, brave, and healthy.  
  
"It's really a pity what will happen to you." He stood, getting the dishes and forceps and extra bandages and walked to the door before pausing. "If only you...well, if only you weren't born! I think...I think tomorrow I will kill you." He cackled madly then, and the door slammed shut behind him.  
  
As soon as she was sure that he was gone, Ginny spat onto the tray and shined it up with her sleeve as best as she could. Then she placed it under the hole in the ceiling and looked at the sad, faded reflection of the star.  
  
The room was a bit brighter now, but to Ginny it was the same dank place. No amount of light could change it. Ginny put a hand to her head. It was pounding again but the burning had faded a little. Ginny looked up quickly. Had it, had that been-no, it couldn't be.  
  
She had seen something scamper around the room. What was it?  
  
There it was again, and this time it was accompanied by another thing, something bigger.  
  
Then Ginny lost it. She couldn't find it in the room anymore, but suddenly her arms felt very limp, very strange. She got itchy then, and insects were running up and down her limbs. She scratched, madly tearing at her own skin.  
  
Ginny saw the shadows again, this time darting close to her face and in and out of her clothes, and they brought with them bright lights and twirling spots.  
  
These too faded into nothingness and Ginny had one last thought before she lost herself in a sensation of emptiness.  
  
Malfoy had drugged her.

)(

And indeed, if you didn't know, that was one chapter out of four...I think it will be four, the way I have it planned.

Please review, and flames will be welcome if they're constructive! 


	2. Chapter 2

Here's Chapter 2. Excited? Well this is nearly over, two more chapters to go...not much of a cliffie, I've been known to make worse. Read it, please please please, and I will grant you one wish! Kind of unlikely but I bet you will be blessed for a few days. Maybe your whole life, if you're lucky. Onwards, enjoy!

)(

Ginny had the strangest dream that night. She dreamed that a man was touching her, a man suspiciously like Draco Malfoy.

Ginny was lying on a bed somewhere, a nice, soft, fluffy bed, with silk sheets and huge puffy pillows, like clouds. She sighed in her dream, and sank further into the sheets.

Then arrived the man.

He sat on the bed next to her, putting the thing that he was holding in his hands down.

There was a lamp somewhere, blue and gray, glowing weakly. Ginny tried to sit up then, but the man pushed her down. His pale hands went for her throat and Ginny tried to bat them away. Strangling wasn't the fastest or most painless way to go.

But the man persisted and he finally got hold on Ginny's coat. She stopped struggling then but she started up as soon as she realized he was undoing it. She heard herself moaning and making slight mewing noises of fright.

Ginny tried to tear his hands away but in the dream her grip was like the grip of a fish's fin. Her hand kept slipping and falling down.

Ginny then tried to wake herself up, something she normally could do very well.

But no take.

Button by button, her coat was become looser and Ginny's efforts became more and more feeble. Then she was lifted out of the coat and she was pulled up to someone's chest.

But when Ginny tried to straighten, she slouched further and slumped onto them, their hands running down her back. She heard them speak and it sounded like they were speaking to her from underwater.

"You were once a fighter, a great person, supposedly tough, strong, clever, and witty. Now you're just a shell of a witch, and soon you'll be no more than a missing face, a fading memory." He put Ginny's arms through something and strapped it around her back. Then he pulled her head through another thing, putting her arms through that too.

Ginny tried to yell. It sounded a bit like she was clearing her throat.

Then the man lay her back down, and grabbed her feet, sliding something up her legs and it came to rest finally on her hips.

"I could, you know, fix you up to what you once were, or...rather, what you looked like. But," he smiled roguishly, "There's only so much that a body like yours was would be good for. Besides," his smile turned cruel and cold. "It's much more entertaining this way."

Ginny moaned then.

With a great rush of air, Ginny sat up quickly and felt for her surroundings. She wasn't on a bed, that much she was sure of.

Everything was fine; it was all good and normal.

Her breathing slowed, to a regular pace. Looking down, it quickened.

But Ginny was now dressed in Muggle clothing.

Complete with underwear.

"I must tell you absolutely how much I abhor this food." Ginny said, digging into the soup. "How many days has it been?" She leaned forward to allow him to reach her wound, sliding the spoon into her mouth.

"None of your concern." He paused though, on his ministrations. "But it's just less than a month. I must say, even I'm surprised. You'd think Potter would be after you like a bloodhound." He pushed on Ginny's newest cut, which he had given her the day before yesterday. "Have you been rolling around on the floor, rubbing dust and mold into this? It's the most infected thing I've ever seen."

A few days before, Ginny had tried to push past him in the doorway, sending her food flying into the air. He knocked her down and she landed on a shard of her water glass.

"Yes, that is what I do. Day after day, I roll around on the floor." She took another spoonful of food. "Thirty something days with the same soup. The same bread. It's enough to drive me insane." Ginny rolled her eyes but shut them when he pushed on her cut again. "Hey. You can't just push it like that."

"Christ! It's just been festering and festering! It's disgusting! And it stinks, unbelievable!" Draco grinned sadistically. "I may as well just cut it out of you, cut the whole thing out." This time, he flicked the cut, and Ginny heard some liquid, most likely pus and blood, splatter on the ground. She turned quickly and made to slap him. He stopped her by pushing her back. "Don't." Ginny stopped her hand, but left it open in the air just to show him that she would hit him anyway, taking a bite of bread.

This was, as of late, how it worked. They'd fight; they'd tend their wounds a little. When they could fight again, they would.

Ginny suspected he got some kind of sadistic pleasure from hitting her, but then again, she loved to hit him. In fact, were she in his place, she'd do the same.

"As I was saying, I really might have to cut it out." He patted her cut a little, telling her to get up and there was nothing else to do.

Ginny winced. "Um, no. Don't cut it." She stood up, stretching and rotating her body this way and that, and suddenly dropped to her knees. Her breath was coming in short, fast hitches now, and Malfoy noticed. "Oh my God..." she managed.

Malfoy looked at her. "What-"

"Ah...Malfoy, there's a chunk of glass stuck in there somewhere!" She gasped as she turned to try and look at it. She turned back, suddenly wishing she hadn't seen it. So that was what Malfoy was tending to. That huge black thing, living on her and feasting on her health. She tried to speak once again. "You poked it around and now I can feel it!"

"What are you talking about?" He was slow to react, seeming to enjoy her pain.

"Shit! There is a huge thing in my back, Malfoy! It is poking my already rotted flesh, so if you could pull it out somehow...I might really appreciate it..." She ground her teeth together and managed to grit out her sentence.

"Bend over a little, calm down." He grabbed a pair of tweezers.

Ginny got down on her hands, nearly blind with pain, and she felt Malfoy kneel behind her. "Hurry it up, dammit Malfoy, it is really painful!" She tried not to scream while he pulled her shirt up a little.

"Well I'm just a little hesitant because I'm unsure exactly as to how gentle you want this experience to be." He snickered a little and Ginny managed to roll her eyes even in her pain.

"Malfoy, I don't need your innuendos! Just get that glass out of me before I die or give me the bloody forceps!"

He was silent but she could feel him probing the wound. He stuck them in suddenly and Ginny tried not to howl. She tried to keep still and she hit the ground with her fist to distract herself.

"Calm down. I think I've found it." Draco said, bending down. "No wait. I don't see it." Ginny was just about to breathe when he yanked it out of her skin with a disgusting squelch.

She screamed. She couldn't help it and it was one of the few times Draco had ever heard her scream like that.

"Ah, ow! Ow, ow, _ow_!" She collapsed onto the ground, gasping, trying to stop the hot tears from rushing to her eyes.

Malfoy looked down on her, curled on the ground. He felt a rush of something, certainly not love, or lust, or pity. It was something more like pride.

Only a Weasley could hold back tears of a pain as brutal as this, and who had brought her down? He had, of course.

She looked up at him, and managed to pull herself up. "Thank you, so much, for not telling me that you were going to pull it out!"

Draco sighed. "I thought it would hurt less!" He smiled at the absurd sound of the conversation.

"Well it hurt more because I didn't brace myself for it!" She pushed her tray at him, and he put the shard of glass on it. She regarded the glittering thing. "I can't believe you missed that yesterday. It's huge!"

"Maybe I left it in there to cause you more pain." He smiled a smile that Ginny wasn't sure of. He wiped up the cut as best as possible.

"Why don't you ever use magic to heal me, Malfoy?"

He paused, half standing, half kneeling. "I suppose I like to see you in pain." He smiled that smile again, and Ginny's eyes lingered on him for a moment. She was never sure when he was telling the truth or lying, but it wouldn't really matter.Ginny leaned back on the wall as Malfoy left. "See you tomorrow." She whispered weakly, her eyes closed.

"Mmm. I'll probably kill you." She heard the door shut behind him.

Ginny could feel blood and pus dripping down her back, but she fell asleep anyway. She shifted in her sleep and too soon was she awake. Ginny woke up in another dark room, but once again she was on something soft. Not a bed, but more like a giant cushion.

She rolled over and could feel the weight of someone else. She put her hand out to feel out a few of their features and try to see whom it was.

She couldn't really tell, but their hair was so soft, much like Harry's. She slid her hand lower, to find a powerful, arching neck, and then even lower, coming across bare skin. Her hand traveled further, and she was could feel the tight, sinewy muscles that reminded her of honest, hard work, not from something like weight training. His arms were powerful but only a little muscular, and his torso was slight, his stomach taut and smooth.

It had to be Harry. Maybe they had found her and placed a memory charm on her so she wouldn't remember her ordeal with Draco Malfoy...but she had just remembered it.  
  
'Oh,' she thought. 'Who gives a shit? How often do you get to wake up next to Harry Potter?'

The person lying beside her, awake the whole while, moved closer to her and offered his lips to her before she could say anything. Ginny felt them with some surprise against her own.

It had to be Harry. Of course it was. She was just so...enamored that she couldn't think straight.

Ginny felt him lean over her, entwining his fingers in her hair. He pulled his head away before she could start to kiss back but soon she felt his lips, hot and wet, on her neck below her jaw, while he ran his free hand down her arm to her hand which he held, wrapping it in his fingers.

Ginny sighed when his tongue left a trail down to her collarbone. He pressed his lips softly onto it and brought them back up to hers again for another kiss.

Ginny expected his mouth to linger but all he offered was a tantalizing brush of the lips before she could feel him again, going lower than her collarbone.

Every time she was about to whisper "Harry," he would do something that would cause her to choke on her words and stop trying to speak.

She felt him shift once more. There was no way this could be a dream, because dreams didn't feel this way.

She gasped as she felt his mouth close over her nipple. She wasn't naked, was she? As far as she knew, she was still clothed! But, well, there was Harry, kissing her breast, so obviously not!

She couldn't see him in the dark, but she let go of his hair and brushed her hand faintly down his back.

Ginny let out another gasp as she felt his hand, lower than his mouth. She was taking deep breaths now, as though she were drowning in the sensation.

She stopped then, suddenly, because he stopped. She nearly groaned in displeasure. And then his hand was cupping her cheek and she tilted her head upwards to kiss him. It was a hotter kiss, needy and full of wanton emotions.

Ginny licked his throat then, and she could feel a deep rumbling beneath her lips, and the steady push of his pulse against her mouth. She ran her hands over his arm.

She paused again.

She felt his arm.

And this time he felt her hesitation. As fast as they were in their hot embrace, Ginny felt him gripping her throat. Her gasping breaths were what awoke her and brought her back to reality.

The dungeons came into a kind of dim focus, a small shaft of sunlight reaching tender fingers into the cell, and she realized that she had indeed been dreaming. And it was such a good dream. Until the Dark Mark had made its appearance, and Harry had turned into Draco.

Ginny groaned in distaste. She couldn't help herself from muttering, "Oh God." It hadn't really been Harry, had it? It hadn't been Harry pressing his body so passionately into hers. It hadn't been Harry when they touched each other. It hadn't even been Harry kissing her breast. That was just a girlish fantasy, something left over from her younger days at Hogwarts.

It had, of course, really been Draco.

Then the thought that it might not have even been a dream struck Ginny like a hailstone in December.

Ginny scrambled to the silver tray, and tried to examine her reflection. She hadn't a mark on her, so it really had been a dream. Not a handprint, not a hickey. Just a dream.

Oh, what a wretch she was.

Stuck in a dark dungeon in who-knows-where, having sexual fantasies about her captor. Who, not to mention, hit her pretty much every day.

Ugh. Those words.

Sexual fantasies.

Speak of the Devil, she thought dazedly, knowing he was coming. She could hear his footsteps in the hall outside, and she wanted nothing more than to sink into the ground. Even if sinking into the ground meant going straight to Hell.

Any second now, the man in her 'sexual fantasy', would come banging through that door. Any second.

Disgusting.

Ginny heard the door open, and standing there balancing a tray of food and a jug of water, was Draco. And God, would she never let him touch her.

Abominable.

She felt the hot charge of blood to her cheeks when his eyes met hers, like a pack of wild horses sent by God to trample her into the ground. Ginny could also feel the blood rushing past her ears, like a river she would give anything to drown herself in.

Revolting.

Ginny felt the vomit come crawling up her throat, ready to see the world for itself. She turned away from his gaze in a sudden fit of humiliation and retched, feeling bile and other gastric liquids rising again and again in her mouth.

She heard Malfoy put down the tray and he stood behind her. Not doing anything, just standing. When she finished she leaned against the wall, as weak as a newborn baby. She could feel him wiping at her mouth and nose and brushing her hair back. Ginny would have vomited again but there was nothing left.

Malfoy stood next to her. "I suppose you aren't hungry then."

She ignored him at first, but she decided to say something. "Going to kill me today?"

"Maybe."

Ginny paused. "Show me your arm. Please?" She whispered.

"Why?" Draco spoke. He looked at her, indignant. "I don't see why I should show anything to you, when I am most obviously in the position of power here."

Ginny turned to face himand let out a resigned sigh. "Will you just show me your arm, Malfoy?" He looked at her. "Look, I said 'please', and that was stretching the situation. Now just do it."

He looked at her once more and offered her his arm. "See it for yourself, you're so eager."

She stared down at it and she was sure that Draco could see her gulp in fear. Ginny moved her eyes over his arm, which was currently covered in a long white sleeve. It was immaculately clean.

She glanced at him quickly, but his eyes caught hers for longer than she had intended. Ginny could see his pupils, black against so pale of a grey, dilated in the darkness. Ginny reached out, her fingers missing and lightly brushing on his upturned palm.

He looked as though he was going to flinch away but Ginny barely noticed. She was still watching him watch her but she saw him look, briefly, at her fingers. His eyes flickered back up to hers and he blinked.

Ginny focused. There was no reason to draw anything out. Ginny inhaled, her breath catching, and then she swiped up his sleeve. It didn't move very far but she caught the bottom of something black, something dark and raised on his skin.

Ginny gasped and let it drop, standing immediately and stepping away from Malfoy.

He sat a moment longer and then he stood too. Moving quickly towards her, he grasped her hand. Ginny tried to pull away, unsure why she wasn't even hitting him. He held her tighter and tried to speak.

"It's..." He shoved up his sleeve and it rested loosely on his elbow. Ginny saw a small horse, black, and it was standing on its hind legs kicking at the air. She ran her fingers tentatively down the creature and she stepped away again.

"Where is it?" She looked around wildly; trying to find an escape route that she knew didn't exist. "Where is the Mark?" Her eyes rested on him.

He seemed pleasantly taken aback. "I don't have one."

Ginny, this time, was surprised. "What? Why not?" She narrowed her eyes like a child. "Daddy been too busy to get baby one?"

Malfoy charged at her and slammed her by her shoulders into the wall. "Don't ever...don't you ever speak to me like that. Especially about my father!" He bared his teeth at her. "And don't forget where you are."

Ginny pushed him off of her. She shook herself and looked at him.

He stared back, his face calm. "Are you hungry, or what?"

Ginny sniffed and tilted her chin up at him. "No."

He laughed, trying to keep his composure. "Are you trying to tell me that I made roast chicken for nothing then?"

Ginny opened her eyes. "What? Did I hear 'roast chicken' being uttered?" Her eyes closed again. "And 'made' by you? Perhaps I really did die..."

He sighed. "Maybe." Ginny scowled at him. "It had better be good." She walked over to the tray, earlier unnoticed. She picked at the chicken with her fingers and watched him as she put a piece of it in her mouth. Ginny closed her eyes briefly but they flicked open and back at him as she chewed. She narrowed them again.

"Did you make this?" She hesitated. "Really?"

He stared her down and silently dared her to ask him one more time, crossing his arms. But finally he spoke. "Tastes like?"

Ginny swallowed a big mouthful. "Like shit. I hate it." She tore at the chicken. "But I'll eat it so I don't insult you." Stuffing some meat into her mouth, she pulled out a needle-sized bone. She made as if she were going to stab him with it, but he remained unfazed and pulled it from her greasy fingers. "It's probably not wise for me to be eating this. But like I said, don't want to offend you."

He let out a snicker. "Don't expect this tomorrow. Tomorrow I'm going to kill you."  
"You've been saying that everyday! Stop saying it or just kill me all ready because honestly, I'm tired of waiting." Ginny muttered through a mouthful of food.

"Tomorrow." He looked down on her and murmured again. "Tomorrow." Then he seemed suddenly detached, taken in a fit of rage, and left quickly.

Ginny shrugged her shoulders to herself. "I'll be waiting. As always. Day after day, for a month. Christ, has it really been that long..." she trailed off.

Of course it had.

And she had just gotten a plan.

Ginny stayed awake the whole night, planning. And also getting horrendous stomach cramps and having to use her bucket often. It was degrading, sure, but it gave her time to think. She certainly had eaten too much.

It wasn't much of a plan. So what. She could pretend she was getting her period. What would that get her? Not much, of course, unless she could fabricate some kind of story or something. But Malfoy wasn't a complete fool, he was educated, of course, and that meant he would know what she was up to and that her saving grace would last only for seven days. She wouldn't really be getting it either. She had taken a potion, just before Malfoy had come for her, and she wouldn't get it for several weeks more.

And by then she most likely really would be dead.

But still! What would she do? Tie a bunch of Muggle tampons and sanitary napkins together and strangle him when he came to deliver her food? Or make a long rope of them and throw them out of the tiny hole in the ceiling to hopefully catch someone's attention?

Ginny shook her head. The most she would get out of it was a bath...at the very most! Ginny gasped and stood up smiling. A bath! Of course. If she did get a bath she would at least see something of her surroundings! And maybe there would be some way of escape!

Ginny giggled. She sat back down and waited until the first few rays of sunlight shifted into the cell.

"Malfoy! Malfoy, get down here! Malfoy! Where are you?" She screeched through the door, pounding on it and making a ruckus. Finally a while later, he came.

"What the fuck do you want?" He was dressed, clean and did not look as though he had just woken up, which had been what she wanted. If he was tired, he would most likely agree just to get back to sleep. Ginny scowled. "Do you sleep at all?"

He returned the scowl. "No. I don't sleep." He leaned against the door. "What do you want?"  
Ginny smiled. "Well, I am sure you are quite familiar with the term 'menstruation'. It's a medical word for a girl's monthly." She grinned as he stared at her.

"So?"

"'So'?" She frowned. "I don't quite think you understand. I have my period. I need 'supplies'."

He grunted disdainfully. "Ugh. No you don't. Take care of it yourself." He began to walk away.

"Malfoy, I need tampons and sanitary napkins. Or one or the other!" She yelled at his back. He would get them, of course. He had gotten her the single Muggle outfit and the food. He would get this even though she didn't need them. She just had to make him think that it really was her time.

"Oh, and Malfoy?" He stopped but didn't turn. "I'll need a bath." Ginny waited. "Several, actually. It's quite a messy business." She added, just to disgust him further.

He shook his head and walked away from her again.  
  
)(

Well there you go! Chapter 2. Now will Ginny's plan really work? Will she escape? Will Malfoy take pity on her and whisk her away to the Bahamas?  
  
Hahaha. Actually, I don't even know.  
  
Tell you lot what, if you think that I should make her die, tell me. I just want to see, since I've already got an idea and I'm not going to change it. No matter how much you beg. But just tell me if you want her to die. Oh yeah. I'm evil.  
  
Leave a review! 


	3. Chapter 3

Ah, so sorry I've been gone for so many weeks…I was kind of disappointed. I NEED REVIEWS!!! Well that and I'm actually TRYING in all my classes…so I have hardly any free time. It's kind of like one sentence and go. Plus the boy I like is a major piece, a major work. He's a big asshole and I can't believe I ever liked him. Ass…

Well anyway, on with the goods!

* * *

It was nearly evening when he returned and Ginny was surprised. 

He didn't carry a tray with him but instead brandished a newspaper roughly about her face. The headline read, "Dark Lord Defeated! Death-Eaters on the Run!" Ginny snatched it from him with a cheeky grin. She read for a bit, the smile on her face growing larger and larger.

"Really? Oh, really? That's great! Oh my god, yes!" She shrieked, standing up and jumping around. She twirled wildly, dancing like a wild creature, laughing and laughing.

The feeling inside of her grew and grew, ballooning into a gigantic bubble of euphoria.

Her joyous cries were silenced when Malfoy grabbed her suddenly, and his sharp fingers crushing into her skin were like the needles that popped the bubble fizzing in her heart. She looked at him, and her happiness was ruined.

"What are you talking about? What the fuck am I going to do?" He ran his hands through his hair and straightened his back. He looked at the floor, pondering his next move. Then he got a glint in his grey eyes. "Today is the day!" Ginny tried to slap him away, but he grabbed her, and was about to throttle her neck.

Ginny slipped away from his snatching hands, however, and screamed at him at the top of her lungs. "Stop it! Dammit, I am tired of this! Just STOP IT!" She stared at him, furious yet amazingly happy, and she breathed heavily through flared nostrils.

He yelled at her. "I WON'T stop! Goddammit, do you have any idea what is going to happen to me? Bloody hell, I'm better off killing myself by jumping off a fucking cliff!"

Ginny ignored him at first, but she felt her blood boil at the thought of him having the last word. "Well why don't you then? Why don't you jump off a bloody cliff, and I will just sit here and starve, and then die, and finally the world and I will be free of your snarky, wanking presence!" She grabbed the paper from the floor and read through it quickly, plopping herself onto the ground. "Just calm down, Malfoy, and let me read the damn thing! Sit the fuck down, and shut up!" Ginny grabbed his hand and violently pulled him down.

He was absolutely stunned. "Wha…but, I…you can't…stop….I'm…." he stared at her, taken aback.

She glanced at him. "No wonder everyone writes that you don't stutter and that you keep control of your emotions. It's absolutely appalling. Please stop." Ginny returned her focus to the newsprint after giving him a serious glare.

Malfoy clamped his mouth shut and stared at her, breathing rapidly through his nose.

"Wow. Unbelievable. Hey, listen to this:

'Harry Potter was unable to be reached for comment; having just been admitted once again into St. Mungo's for severe burns and curse-wounds. It is thought that he was hit by several spells, including the Cruciatus and the Imperius curses, the Stupefy, the Shredding curse, and other dark spells. However, his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermione Granger are luckier than he is, to have escaped with only broken bones and concussions.'

"What the hell is so much better and luckier about that?" Ginny continued, paying no attention to Malfoy. Suddenly she looked up, beaming. "Hey! I'm on the second page! Wacko…" She began to read another excerpt.

" 'Ginny Weasley, on another note, is still missing. She was seen several weeks ago, and her house has been searched. It was found in ruins, as mentioned in last week's column. However, authorities couldn't find any clues to her whereabouts, as her captor has hidden his tracks amazingly well. Below is a picture of the missing girl, if you have any information please contact….' "

Ginny gasped, and her eyes turned into vicious slits. "What the hell is this?!" She shrieked.

"What?" Malfoy said, acting bored, all though inside, he was a tumult of emotions. Mostly fear.

She shook the paper violently. "This goddamn picture was taken four years ago!" She was fuming, and thrust the paper into his face. "Look at that! I'm sixteen in this picture!" She tore it back, and stared at the moving photo. "No wonder I'm still missing, those bloody wankers, they're all looking for a sixteen year old Ginny Weasley! Fucking hell!" Ginny threw the paper back at him and slumped dejectedly against the wall.

"Do you really have a long scar on your back?" He said, reading the article. She wouldn't answer him, so his voice next adopted an air of mysteriousness. "Well I suppose I'll see soon enough."

Ginny looked at him. "What are you talking about?"

He smirked at her, the fear in his eyes masked for a short moment. "Bath-time…" He said softly.

Draco Malfoy had led her through large hallways, small rooms, past a kitchen, and soon enough she was at a bathroom. He hadn't bothered to cover her eyes, really. She asked him why.

"Because I'm going to kill you soon enough."

Ginny felt a twinge of fear, knowing he would. This time, there would be no escape. "Well," She sighed, "I may as well live it up then." She opened the door.

Inside was a small bathroom, the likes of which were very plain. Ginny loved it though, because it was absolutely everything a bathroom should be. And besides, it was more than she had seen in months. At the scent of soap, Ginny realized her own stench. She looked sheepishly at Malfoy. "I really stink, don't I?"

He nodded. "It's absolutely foul."

She offered him a smile, and stepped up to the tub. "Are you going to stand there while I bathe?"

"Of course. I don't want you to run away, since I'm going to have to kill you."

"Why do you keep saying that? I know you will, but you could stop saying it." She grimaced at him. "Do you really have to watch? Can you at least put up a curtain or something?" She clutched at her shirt, as though she were itching to tear it off.

He groaned.

"Oh come on. I won't have you just watch me bathe."

"I've already seen you naked, twice, so what's the difference? Now hurry up and bathe, or else you'll die stinking." He pulled up a chair from the hallway, and sat down. He had grabbed the newsprint from the cell and began to read it.

Ginny growled at him. She reached for a towel and wrapped it around herself, undressing underneath it. She made sure he didn't notice her clean white underwear, unstained. She threw her reeking shirt at him, and he grimaced. Malfoy looked at her. "Would you mind? Honestly. I'm trying to read here, and if you don't behave, I'll have to undress you myself." He focused on the paper.

Ginny threw her pants at him. He glared at her.

Suddenly her face brightened, as though a light bulb had appeared just above her head. "Wait!" She screeched. He looked up at her outburst. "Malfoy, do you have a fireplace?" She ran to him and grabbed her clothing, clutching the towel around herself.

"Why?"

"Just show it to me!"

He nodded to the room across the hallway. "In there."

Ginny smiled to secretively. She pulled his wand out from his pocket, and he made to take it forcefully away from her. But she tsk-tsked at him, and pushed his hands away. She leaped excitedly towards the other room, and once inside, threw her stinking clothes on the fireplace. "Incendio!" She bellowed, and the fire roared up immediately like a beast, consuming the cloth.

She felt like dancing, and she threw Malfoy's wand back to him. She was much too happy for someone about to be killed, but an odd sense of relief permeated throughout her body.

Soon her clothes were ashes, and the fire lit up the rooms. Ginny smiled to herself, as the stench of burnt cloth faded. Malfoy came up behind her, watching her burn the clothes. He put his hands on her hips, causing her to jump a little. He just guided her back to the bathroom, and pushed her to the tub.

"Hurry up. It's getting late, and I am going to kill you tonight." Draco sighed, sitting back down.

Ginny filled up the tub, and added some soap to make bubbles. The water steamed pleasantly, and released a delightful aroma, smelling like a decidedly masculine soap. She turned to Malfoy, who was still reading.

"Malfoy, shut your eyes, I'm going to take off the towel."

"Why? What does it matter, you'll die anyway. It's not going to be your body for much longer." He shrugged at her.

"Yes but I will die knowing that I allowed you to rake you lecherous eyes up and down my naked feminine curves." She smirked, her voice airy but mocking, as though she was reading to him a racy romance novel.

The corners of his mouth curved upwards in a sarcastic smile. He shut his eyes. Ginny watched him for a moment, to see if he would look. She stamped her feet lightly on the tiles, hoping that he would open his eyes if he thought she turned around. He didn't. So Ginny turned, and took off the towel.

Malfoy opened his eyes a little.

Were they in any one of many different situations, he was sure that he would have had her then, roughly and on the cold tiles, bodies slick with sweat and steam. He brushed the idea away.

Ginny Weasley was a beautiful woman, and it would have been wrong for him not to admit it. She had been, at least.

She was petite, with frighteningly pale skin, most likely due to her being locked in a dark room for a month. Her bones were visible due to lack of food, but she had muscle, most likely from fighting with him. She moved slowly, treasuring the feeling of fresh air. Her body was stained and dirtied, and there were traces of cuts and large scars all over her. Most of the cuts and smaller scars were fresh, but several of the larger scars he was sure that he had not caused. She stepped into the bath, gracefully testing the water first with a toe. Her legs, he noticed, were of course unshaved.

She did have a scar, long and thin and running from the base of her spine to the bottom of her neck. He hadn't noticed it before, really, and it quite surprised him that he hadn't found it.

Draco opened his eyes a little more, and the way she moved very nearly captivated him. She was skinny now, and always had been, but the way she moved hinted at curves; as though the air around her shimmered and gave her a luscious frame. Her hips swayed a little as she stepped into the bath, and Draco suddenly thought he could feel her legs wrapped around his waist, those hips pressing into his.

He clamped his eyes shut, purposefully not thinking of anything related to nudity or sexuality. He straightened his posture and cleared his throat a bit. "Finished yet?"

"Yes, quite." He opened his eyes and shook the paper a bit to straighten out the pages. Ginny let out a sigh. "God, yes. This feels great…" She ducked her head under the water and stayed under for nearly a minute. She came up gasping just as Draco was going to check on her. She grinned like a Cheshire cat. She let out a series of girlish giggles as she poured a handful of shampoo on herself.

She turned to Draco and smiled as she lathered up, careful not to rise too far above the bubbles.

He scowled at her behavior and kept reading the paper.

She continued to scrub. Soon she began to hum. And sooner, she was singing. Malfoy scowled again. Her voice was much too beautiful.

"Why are you singing?" He said finally, turning to her.

"It's a song called 'Why do you-"

"I asked 'Why,' not 'What'."

"Oh." She said huffily. "Well it was quiet, that's all." She dunked back under the water to wash out her hair.

Malfoy turned the page of the paper. Ginny emerged from the water, to catch him leaning over, his eyes wildly moving across the page. He stood up quickly, and Ginny flinched at the sound of the chair falling over.

"Fuck! Bloody fucking hell!" He managed, throwing the paper down and stride through the hallway. Ginny heard a door bang shut.

"Malfoy?" Ginny whispered after him, hunkering down in the water, afraid. She realized he wasn't returning. She quickly reached out for the paper, leaning dangerously out of the tub.

Ginny swept her eyes over the page, and she at first didn't know what had him so upset, because such an event was another that made her joyous. Ginny read the headline again. She realized suddenly, and looked out the open bathroom door into the hallway. "Oh god."

Ginny decided to wait a little. She continued scrubbing until she smelled just like soap, and she managed to shave her legs and armpits very quickly with an open razor she found.

Stepping out of the bathtub and toweling herself, she put on one of Malfoy's robes, hanging on the bathroom door. Tying herself in it, she moved slowly down the hallway and could hear him banging around.

Ginny pushed open the door, slowly, at the end of the hall. "Malfoy…" she whispered. He had thrown several things around, and broken items lay on the floor. A bed was displaced, pushed into the middle of the room. He was roaring, hitting desks and tables. Ginny came up softly behind him.

Looking around, she laid a hand tentatively on his shoulder. "Malfoy…" she murmured again. He stopped, briefly, his hands resting on a splintered table, blood smearing his fingers. Then he whirled around violently.

"What?!" He snarled at her.

"Well…" She didn't really know what to say. She wasn't sure she should apologize, as she wasn't that sorry.

Malfoy stared down at her, his mouth in a cruel sneer. "Go on, say something. It was your bloody boyfriend who did it, anyway!"

Ginny felt the blood creep to her cheeks, but she didn't bother to correct him. He turned suddenly and tipped over the table. It clattered against the wooden floor, the loud noises such surreal sounds in the quiet that surrounded them.

"Well…" she began again as he sat on the bed, putting his head into his hands. "I…I can't really say that I'm very sorry…"

He snorted at her and said harshly, "Yes, amazing how tactful you are about these kinds of things." He looked up from his hands, brushing his blonde hair back behind his ears. Ginny sighed.

"Well I'm sorry that I had to put it so bluntly, but it would be more wrong of me to lie to you about how much I hated him." She sat gently next to him on the bed. "I mean, it's not like he treated anyone I know with very much respect, now is it?" she added, and then biting her tongue for fear she said too much.

He didn't lash out at her like she expected. Instead he began to whisper. "Well, you never really knew him, did you?" Ginny knew that he probably wanted to cry.

After some silence he finally said it, speaking it aloud. "Imagine. My father. Dead." He looked scornfully over at her. "Thanks, of course, to the great Harry fucking Potter…"

She remained quiet, looking at the creases in the bed sheet. Malfoy let out a loud breath. "Figures. Always had to be a bloody hero." He wiped his hands on the sheet, the cuts still bleeding a little. "Couldn't stop at Voldemort, could he, but he had to go for everyone else."

"He's going to come for you, next." Ginny whispered, quietly.

"Yes, I know." He sounded as though he had been dwelling on the idea for days, like a man who knew his fate.

"Why don't you just leave? Kill me, hide me, and leave for somewhere unexpected, like Afghanistan, or Tibet?" She also sounded resigned, and at the lack of fear or anger in her voice he looked up and examined her face for discernable emotions.

He found none.

"You sound so…"

"Submissive?" Ginny glanced up briefly at him and tilted her eyes back down again. "Not really. But I've heard what I always wanted to hear…you know, about Voldemort…and there isn't really any escape, is there?" She sighed. "I just have to let it go. Why stress about something so…unimportant?" She paused. "Well, not unimportant, but you know…"

"Yes I know." Malfoy wouldn't let his eyes leave her face. "Well, as we're opening up about how we feel, I must say that I rather admire your conviction." Ginny offered him a small teary smile.

Malfoy returned it but looked away. He focused his attention on his hands, which had scabbed over. "I just…I can't…" Suddenly he found that he turned to Ginny and began to talk to her, getting her full attention. "It's unfathomable! I've lived my life with that man breathing down my neck! What the hell am I supposed to do now?" He trailed off, unsure of his own words.

"It's terrible to be lost, isn't it?" She asked, scooting closer. "You should just run."

Malfoy hesitated. "I…I can't." Ginny looked at him quizzically.

"Why?"

"I just can't." He groaned. "I don't know why. It wouldn't feel right, I suppose, without someone with me. My father and I used to travel all the time. Even before the War. He would take me to the grandest places, Egypt, Africa, France." He suddenly wanted so much to be able to look at her and hold her gaze, so he averted his eyes.

"Oh." Ginny managed, suddenly feeling the heavy tension in the air. "I…" She didn't know really what she was going to say, but she leaned forward because she could feel it, she could feel what she had to say, because it was so important.

He leaned forward at the same time, and it was quite an accident that their lips met in a dry, wicked kiss.

* * *

Okay…well so sorry, eh, about the extra commas. I've a problem with those. But it isn't my fault! I haven't got a beta! Oh well. Just tell me about the mistakes. 

And I told myself I wouldn't do this to you guys, but, if you don't leave a review, my spirits will fall down and I'll be totally unhappy and I won't be able to think of a good ending!

Even though I have and all…I just won't type as fast.

So review, and I will love you! FOREVER!!! 


	4. Chapter 4

Announcing to all my fans...yes, I am still alive okay, but debate has been taking my time up. Honors Policy Debate, and I've got a fucking 95.1...beat that, bitches. That's practically a 115 percent in a regular class...okay, well, here's CHAPTER FOUR, THE FINAL CHAPTER!!!

* * *

Both of them pulled away quickly and made to look around the room. However both their eyes met again, and they examined each other's faces, and the awkwardness arose once more.

They leaned in again, fast, like two teens afraid of being caught by their parents.

Their lips pressed together and at first the kiss was dry and weak, as before.

But Ginny scooted closer to Draco, unsure of what to do with her hands. She decided to rest them in his hair and on the back of his neck. Malfoy pressed her back onto the bed, and Ginny shifted.

After a little, the kiss was hot and wet and sensuous and Ginny was swimming in a sea of overwhelming sensations. She didn't have any part of her mind left to contemplate the fact of just what she was doing with Draco Malfoy, as she was concentrating on staying afloat.

His hand then, stunningly gentle, ran over her ribs in a soft caress just as his teeth nipped her lips.

Ginny gave a shuddering breath, and lifted her head to kiss him. It became a contest, and Ginny had just caught his lower lip between hers when his fingers began to run circles on her stomach through the soft fabric of the robe.

She pressed her body into his, and he pushed back. His fingers tread nimbly on her skin, on her body, avoiding her breasts purposefully, and once again Ginny was trapped in a lush, sumptuous world of a tumult of feelings and she frowned slightly through the kiss.

Most of those feelings were the wrong ones.

But she was warmer than she had been in months, nearly years, and his weight on her was protective, and unlike before. She sighed into his mouth, and she became aware of him doing the same.

The kiss slowed, to an agonizing pace. Draco's fingers were rising, higher and higher, and he touched her lightly on her breast, feeling for the beat of her heart. He began to untie the knot in the robe, tentatively, and slowly pushed the cloth loose.

More of her body slowly became visible, the pale skin of her breast growing in the dim firelight.

Suddenly the spell was broken, and Ginny shifted uncomfortably, moving away from him. She stood quickly and tied the robe shut again, looking all around the room for a diversion, while he did the same and made to adjust his clothes.

Ginny let out a hesitant, "Um." And found the diversion she was looking for. "Hey, a window. Don't know how I didn't see it before."

She rushed over to it, her voice too loud. She stuck her head out of the window and breathed in the night air, anything to get the heady scent of his soap, his sweat, his saliva away from her nostrils. There was the scent of trees, a smell that she had nearly forgotten, and the air was saturated. A thunderstorm was on its way.

She leaned on the sill for a little, looking out on the moon. "Well, let's get to it." Ginny walked back over to him.

"It's early yet."

"Sure, but if you think you're going to kill me and not bury me, you've got another thing coming." She crossed her arms. "I hope you have a few shovels."

He looked up at her. "Come on. You can have some of my mother's clothes."

"Mother's clothes?"

Malfoy stood and left the room. "Yes. This was my mother's house before she ever married my father. No one knows, really, because how many people would call my mother Narcissa Black?"

Ginny followed, quiet. She was going to die. She didn't need new clothes. He walked into another room, and began rummaging around in a dresser. "You see, my mum didn't do anything much when my father married her, because when he was young, he had already made a name for himself. After the marriage, he presented to her a manor that had been in his family for centuries. She never really cleaned up this house, especially since she came here when she lost the baby."

Ginny looked at him, the breath catching in her throat.

"'Lost the baby'?"

Malfoy stopped, and leaned forward on the dresser. "Yes. My mum was pregnant when my father married her. They loved each other of course, but it wouldn't be good for either of them to be parents without marriage. My mother went traveling with my father, backpacking over Siberia, looking for ways to expand their fortunes."

He paused, and reached for a dress. "Sorry, I don't think there's any underwear." He paused. "Wait, here's a pair."

"And then?" Ginny prompted softly, taking the dress and underwear from him.

"And then she lost the baby. Miscarriage. When she did, she came back here without my father, until finally one day she showed up again at the Manor, ready for a new life."

"And they had you." She gazed down at the floor.

"Yes. They had me." He ran his hands through his hair. "Well, come on." He lead her out of the room after she had changed, and out of the house completely.

Ginny just had to stop and twirl, and fall onto the grass.

"Don't do that. Something might crawl up between your legs." He gave a little laugh.

Ginny scowled at him.

Malfoy gave her a few minutes before picking up a shovel that was leaning against the whitewashed sides of the house, and pointed to a giant hulking shadow about a quarter of a mile away. "I'm sure you'd rather be buried in the trees that you've missed for a month?" He asked, moving towards the shape.

"Yes." She nodded, standing up from the ground. "Get another shovel. I'll help you."

He shook his head, no. "It's not your job. I should do it." Then he led Ginny to the woods, and the heady scent of decaying bark and leaves floated past on the slight nighttime breeze.

Ginny loved it.

She closed her eyes, briefly, inhaling the scent of the earth around her and, unlike the dank scents of a stone-lined cellar, it was the scent of life that entranced her so. In the cell, the only smell she came across was the scent of her own sweat, her own moldy fear and anger, the rank of her own body, until finally she became immune to these smells.

Malfoy walked next to her instead of in front, and looked at her for a moment. He would surely regret this later, and those flashes of another life hit him, sending a deep pang of melancholy into his heart. Her hair hung in half dry tendrils around her face and her almond shaped eyes were closed. He turned away, and moved in front of her to lead her.

He reached a good place, around several boulders and small fields of scented clover and fern, and paused in the middle of a particularly large one. "Is here a nice enough spot?" He said, and any observer would have thought they were going to have a late night picnic, or set up a tent.

The moon shone through in the middle of the patch and Ginny reached down, picking a clover. She lifted it to him and gave it to him, and he saw the four leaves.

"Hell, with four leaf clovers all over the place? Why not." Ginny couldn't at the moment see any Leprechauns, but she knew they were there, sleeping under dock leaves. They had passed hundreds of dock plants on the way.

He stared down at the clover in his hand and Ginny picked it up from him and tore it apart, scattering the leaves. She laughed nervously. "Well let's get to it then."

Malfoy nodded, feeling as torn as the clover. His eyes strayed from the shovel to her face and she saw him fidget.

Ginny pretended not to notice.

There was, after all, no need to make a hard situation any harder.

She heard the first clump of clover-covered dirt being torn up and Malfoy placed it gently behind himself, so as to plug it back into the earth to continue to grow. Ginny sat down and watched, feeling helpless without a wand or shovel to help him.

He was very strong, despite his weakling appearance. It must have been the pale color of his skin that made him look so anemic. Ginny stared at him as he dug, placing the dirt gently to the side, and gradually using his wand to soften the dirt or get rid of large obstructions. His voice, she noticed, was very masculine. It wasn't deep, no, but it was as though you were being roasted alive and frozen to death at the same time when he spoke to you. Actually, it didn't even have to be to you, she mused. His voice held power anyway. Ginny noticed the fine trails of sweat that began to travel down his temples and neck, and in the small of his back and at his armpits. He worked, the rhythmic sound of the shovel nearly putting her to sleep. But it would be wrong of her to sleep when he was digging so strenuously.

Ginny could see he was tiring and tried to take the shovel, but he snatched it away from her and threw a small pebble down the front of her blouse. He cackled while she struggled to remove it.

"Oh sure, it's all fun and good times when someone has so good of an aim. Until one of those rocks misses and pokes out an eye." Ginny muttered curtly, throwing the pebble at him. It hit him harmlessly in the groin and he smiled.

"Not too bad of an aim you have yourself."

"Bill taught me." She smiled fondly and opened her eyes, which she had unwittingly shut.

"What else did your brothers teach you?" Malfoy asked, to pass the time and silence. He began to shovel this time, trying to quiet his strokes a little.

"Lots of little things." Ginny trailed off. "Mostly bad things." She shifted on the clovers, sitting on her forelegs and leaning towards him on her elbows. "Actually, the whole bad thing was really Fred and George. They taught me how to steal, pickpocket, you know. Open locks and things without magic." Ginny smiled again. "Bill and Charlie taught me things about animals. Charlie, he was the one who taught me how to stay alive if I ever got lost in the woods or forests, and Bill taught me all about money."

"What about Ron? And the other one, Perdy or something."

"Percy? Hah, the only thing he taught me was about cauldron bottoms. Ron taught me how to play chess." Ginny sat up. "Let me help. I feel useless, and that's the last thing I want to feel before I die."

"Calm down will you? Just do something. I will not, however, let you help me dig your grave." Ginny sighed loudly.

Malfoy sighed back at her. "Do whatever you want. Except this." He almost hoped she would run. He hadn't excluded that, and he was already beginning to feel the regret he knew would be coming.

Ginny sighed again, more dramatically this time. Malfoy looked in her direction, sending an exasperated glare. A few seconds later, she began to hum. It was a slow, lazy song, and the noise was soft and eerie. She hummed, the same melody that seemed to never tire either of them, for nearly five minutes before she stopped.

Malfoy nearly flung the shovel over his shoulder when she finished.

He tried not to look at her, and he knew she was doing the same.

About an hour later, Malfoy had dug a hole, five feet deep and roughly five feet long.

"It's very deep, isn't it?" She asked as he clambered from the bottom and fell onto a heap of collected dirt.

"So the animals won't come for your remains." He said shortly, gasping for breath.

Ginny nodded. They both stood up, and Ginny faced him. "Well..." Ginny started.

"Well..." Malfoy tried to continue.

Ginny realized then that if she didn't do it, he wouldn't do it either. She leaped into his arms, which opened at the last millisecond.

At the force of her hug, he nearly toppled backwards into the hole, and that would have made for an interesting tale. But he righted himself, almost by magic.

Ginny pressed her face into his chest, breathing in the scent of his sweat and his soap and the dirt which now surrounded them. She felt a few tears, long delayed tears, leak from her eyes and mingle with the damp front of his shirt. She felt him bring dirty hands up to her hair, and he buried his face in her curled tresses. He inhaled deeply, smelling the scent of his soap on her, smelling not so masculine but instead feminine.

She drew a shuddering breath as she pulled away, but he held her tighter and looked into her eyes.

Malfoy leaned forward and kissed her with the passion of a man who had been exiled into a country with no women, and he wrapped his arms as far as possible around her to kiss her more deeply. Ginny met his eagerness with a passion of her own, and she felt something cold and wet hit her on the jaw. As he gently bit her bottom lip, Ginny snuck a peak.

The moonlight shone dimly on a small wet trail on his cheek. Just one.

He pulled himself away, looking ready to bludgeon himself with the shovel, after kissing her gently on her eyelids.

"I...I..." Malfoy stammered hoarsely. Ginny pressed a hand to his lips to silence him, and she pulled his wand from his pocket to hand it to him. He received it reluctantly.

Ginny stood there. "Just do it Malfoy." She kept her brown eyes open, and didn't falter. "Quickly." She didn't cry or plead.

'Never cry, never plead.' She thought. 'Go down strong.'

He took a step back. He aimed his wand.

And then he looked away, wiping his face quickly and harshly on his sleeve. He turned back to her, his face set in a resolute manner, but moved again.

She stood, resolute and regal enough for a queen. He heard the soft trills of her voice in the shower, the low humming of her in the clovers. He saw the curves of a body wasted away, not by lack of food, but by lack of attention and love. He saw the face of someone who had endured so much more than he had ever thought would be inflicted upon her.

He saw a caged bird, a wild thing, meant to be flitting in and out of the trees.

"Go." He muttered hoarsely. "Leave."

Ginny grasped his hand in hers, and pointed the wand at her own neck. "Please. Just do it."

At the precise moment he muttered "I...I can't...", a spell came flying through the trees. The shot of red exploded off of the dirt pile. They heard someone yelling.

"Up ahead! I think they might be farther ahead! Quickly! Get ready to send up sparks, boys, I got a good feelin' about this one!"

Ginny frantically turned to Malfoy. "Quickly! They've come! They've found you! Kill me and run!"

Malfoy stared, transfixed. "I can't kill you! Not today!"

Ginny groaned impatiently. "Goddamit Malfoy, what a great fucking time to grow a bloody conscience." She prodded him. "Just fucking aim, and say it!"

"No."

"Well what are we going to do, run off into the sunrise together? Where will we go?" She asked, looking into the darkness for the Aurors. "I'm much deeper into this relationship than I thought I would be when I was captured." She said sardonically, as though she hated herself for it.

She probably did.

He grasped her hand then, and it was as close to a yes as she was going to get. They took off running at the sound of crashing in the brush.

The bracken tore at their legs, twigs scratching at their arms and faces. The rocks poked their feet through the thin soles of their shoes, the dirt and rotting leaves flying up and staining their calves.

And then Malfoy stopped. It was only briefly, and they ran further. Ginny thought he just tripped, but then they reached the edge of the woods, and the fading moon was trading light with the just rising sun.

The blood on the back of his shirt told her what had happened to him. The hole in both his shirt and his skin were large.

Ginny hoped that he had shoved his wand back in his pocket. He let her search and didn't fight her. She felt the pockets of his slacksand gasped in relief. It was there. "Malfoy, Malfoy...lie down." She ordered, but he wouldn't listen.

"Keep running. I'll stay. Go somewhere, meet up with your brothers. Your friends." Ginny looked into his eyes.

"Granted, it's you who's messed up my life enough for you to be forced to save it, but I think I may as well repay the favor."

"Don't," he half-joked. "I'll just kill you tomorrow. I told you, not today." Ginny ignored him.

She whispered something, but Malfoy was transfixed by the sight of his shoes getting stained with blood. He smiled.

Ginny thought he felt better, until she looked where he was looking.

The blood was spilling out of his shoes, and giving a little laugh,he collapsed.

"Malfoy!" Ginny said. She tried not to be too loud, because she knewHarry was coming. She could feel the air thickening. "Malfoy, you idiot! Wake up, please, just wake up for a little while!" She shook him and he looked at her with half-closed eyes.

"I've got a plan, Malfoy, just concentrate...and...and I promise as soon as we finish, you can sleep. For as long as you like." She got very breathless then, as though the mere thought of him sleeping forever was unbearable.

"As...as long as...I like?" He muttered, his head in the dead leaves on the ground.

"Yes. Yes, now concentrate!" She brushed a beetle away that was threatening to crawl on his sleeve.

"And you'll...be there, when I wake?"

"God, yes, just pay attention!"

"On what?" He shut his eyes all the way.

"Think of the little hill we passed. Just a while ago."

"Hm." He nodded slowly.

"Now apparate Malfoy, and you can sleep, you can sleep, just apparate!" She turned to look over her shoulder, and she shook him again. "Apparate!"

Her arms felt very strange, like a wind was blowing past them, and she fought it to wrap them around Malfoy.

He was cold, the blood on his shirt wet and chilling.

Ginny felt sick then, and suddenly she knew, and she could have killed herself.

They'd been splinched, or caught, or something.

But the grass was underneath her, the grass beginning to glow with the light of the sun. Then she looked down, the blood staining her skin. Malfoy was pale, so much paler than she'd ever thought he could be.

She sighed. Thank god she'd paid attention in class. She had only apparated a few hundred feet, not much. The Aurors would be able to tell she had apparated, but it had been so close to where she was before that the coordinates would be so confusing that the wouldn't understand.

Auror Training coupled with Hogwarts certainly taught many things.

And at least, at the very least, she thought as she checked his wrist, he wasn't dead yet.

"What a...what a crappy sleep..."

Ginny looked at Malfoy. His lips were barely moving. He was speaking so softly that his voice was toneless.

"Sh, Malfoy, be quiet."

"I'm awake..." He muttered. "You're still here."

Ginny touched the wound on his back, which was not bleeding so much. "Yes. Yes, I'm here. I'm going to fix you up, and you'll be fine, don't worry."

Somewhere, a cardinal chirped, and the sounds of the Aurors were far away.

* * *

Mwahahahahahahah how did you like that one, huh huh? That is the very LAST chapter! I have left you sooooo high and dry, that it would certainly be mean to not give you an epilogue. I might not write one though...

But if I don't give you an epilogue, I WILL give you a sequel. Even if I give you an epilogue, I may give you a sequel.

But I don't know...I could just take the sequel and make it into a new story by changing around the characters....

Hehe. Cor I'm evil. I was going to leave you at the part where he asks her if she'll still be there when he wakes, but that was too Satan-esque, even for me. So, there you go, and leave me a comment on if you want an epilogue, sequel, or yes, a little bit of BOTH.


End file.
